Design + Creativity + Adventure = LOVE

Happy International Scrapbooking Day! The biggest scrapbooking weekend of the year is here! Or at least that’s what I tell my husband because who are we kidding? We all know iNSD is just as much about the shopping as it is the scrapping.

January may be two-thirds of the way over but that doesn’t mean it’s too late for my favorite part of the new year: creative goal setting!

Last year I decided to try something new: a list of 14 goals to complete in 2014.

I loved it.

For me, it was similar to setting a list of birthday goals but as my husband Adam likes to remind me, now that I’m in my 30s, birthday goal lists tied to my age aren’t terribly practical. So this seemed like the best of both worlds: a finite number of goals to strive for AND a number that seemed more doable.

14 in 2014: The Completed List

2014 was the first year I tried this goal setting system. Was it a success? Well, here’s what I completed in 2014 (and yes I used a blue highlighter to mark them off as I went. I’m nothing is not high-tech.):

FINISH ADVENT CALENDAR: Done with time to sew a Christmas stocking for Ryan.

LAUNCH KICKASS SCRAPBOOKING:DONE as of last March although I’ll likely be making some changes to do this – more details to come in a future post.

MAKE A BABY QUILT: Done although we primarily use it for photo shoots since Ryan is only just now growing out of the “spit up on everything” phase.

GO ON A BABY MOON : Our babymoon to Dallas for the Rangers Opening Day was so fun!

ORGANIZE DIGITAL PHOTOS: Not done by choice. After Apple announced the end of Aperture, I decided to hold off to see what they have in store first.

TURN MASTER BEDROOM INTO A COZY SPACE: 50% done. We painted an accent wall and I’ve chosen all the art – just need to get around to finally hanging it up.

MAKE ART FOR OVER THE TV: Done although I’m not 100% in love with it.

DECORATE OFFICE/NURSERY FOR THE LIL’ DUDE’S ARRIVAL: Done and the camping themed nursery turned out adorable.

HAVE A BABY. : ) Not only done but somehow he’s 7 months already!

CREATE PROJECT LIFE 6/6: Not done but with being pregnant the first six months of the year and a newborn the last half, I’m not sure this was a terribly practical goal to begin with.

SCRAP 100 LAYOUTS: 38/100. Not even close. But considering pregnancy killed my creativity and I didn’t even open my computer the first three months after Ryan was born, I figure I’m lucky I finished that many. Hopefully 2015 will be better.

READ 10 BOOKS: 10/10. So done, but only just barely. This one ended up being surprisingly more difficult than I expected. I’m hoping I can make it to 25 this year.

LEARN TO USE MY SILHOUETTE: Not done. I’d planned to do this as part of my Holiday Faves mini album but when I pulled off the cover I realized I had no clue where the cords for it were. Hoping to find them and revisit it later this year.

So in total: 10/14 which I’m thrilled about! That’s more than I thought I’d accomplish when I made the list at the start of 2014.

My list was heavily baby-weighted and the tasks I completed are as well but honestly, I’m cool with that because 2014 was pretty much the year of the baby. Hopefully this year will see the return of more creative adventures.

MY 15 IN 2015 LIST

So what do I have planned in 2015? Well here’s a look at my 15 in 2015 list:

Go hiking as a family

Find my photo style

Do something creative for 30 days

Make one Friday a month FUN day

Take Ryan on his first camping trip

Lose baby weight for wedding

Stay positive during move : )

Print more photos

Reorganize my scrapbook albums

Send birthday gifts & cards early

Try knitting

Scrap a travel album

Print & cut with my Silhouette (assuming I can find the cords!)

Plan an at home date night

Read 25 books

As you see my list is a mix of personal and creative goals. The breakdown of it looks something like this:

Family (5)

Personal (3)

Creative (3)

Scrapbooking (4)

To me, that’s a pretty good mix. You may notice that I don’t have any business-related goals in my list and that’s because I decided to keep my 15 in 2015 for personal/creative goal-setting instead – you know, the fun stuff. I have a separate system I use for business-related goals.

Tips For Creating Your Own 15 in 2015 List

If you’re interested in doing your own 15 in 2015 goal-setting this year, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Tip #1 | Your list should match your priorities: Take some time to really think about what you want to focus on in 2015 and how those goals will fit into your everyday life. Keep in mind that not right now doesn’t have to mean not ever. Save it for a year when it’s a better fit.

Last year I weighted my list heavily toward home & baby-related items because with our first baby arriving mid-year, it was simply where my mind and momentum was at at the time.

15 goals is plenty and in my experience those ongoing goals are the momentum killers – they hang over your head reminding you all year long of your failure, which is most definitely what we don’t want!

I have one on my list this year (Make one Friday a month FUN day) but it’s both fun AND doable so I’m ok with giving it a go.

Tip #3 | Wants work better than shoulds: We all have those things are our mental to-do lists that we feel like we should do. You’ll recognize them because during your brainstorm because your thought process will go something like “Well, I really should do {insert uninspiring and unexciting goal here}.” For example, “Well, I really should learn to use my Silhouette because I’ve had it two years and it’s currently collecting dust on my desk.”

I can tell you from experience the four goals I didn’t complete last year all fell into the “well I sort of want to do it but more I really should do it” category…which is exactly why they didn’t get done.

While I won’t tell you to avoid these goals completely because sometimes the key to a should getting done is to add it to your list, I would be careful adding too many to your list. You want to be excited and inspired by your list, not reminded of all the things you should do.

Tip #4 | Making your list visible is the key to success: The best thing I did last year, and no doubt the reason for my success, was I printed out a small 4×6-inch card of my 14 in 2014 goals list and tucked it into the pocket of my wall calendar. Every time I walked into my office there it would be, sometimes inspiring me, sometimes mocking me, but always reminding me that “oh yeah, THAT’s what I planned to do this year.”

Free 15 in 2015 Goal Setting Printable

If you’re a creative like me, odds are out of sight=out of mind for you too. So to make making your list easy for you, I’ve put together a free printable 4×6-inch card you can use to keep your list visible all year long.

The download includes 5 files in a single zip file: a layered Photoshop (.PSD) file with an editable text box for adding your list (title is not editable) and two printable PDFs (one with numbers and one without) that you can use to handwrite your list.

Since the PDFs are 8.5×11 but the card is intended to be 4×6-inches, both PDFs include crop marks so you know where to trim. But I also included two crop mark free versions in case crop marks scare you and you’d rather guess where to trim or leave your list floating on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper. That works too.

The Holiday Faves 6×8 Mini Album & Project Class is in full-swing behind the scenes here at Nettio Designs, so today I wanted to give those of you who haven’t joined in yet a chance to try out one of the templates from the class…for FREE!

The Making A List free download includes one 6×8-inch layered Photoshop (.PSD) file for you to customize as well as one printable 6×8 JPG you can use as is. Print them at 6×8 to use in your holiday mini album or scale them down to 3×4 inches to slip into your pocket scrapbooking.

Of course, if you’d like to join me and almost 50 other Holiday Favers in scrapbooking your favorites holiday memories and moments in a fun and creative way, sign up up for the Holiday Faves 2014 Mini Album & Project Class. Class started Monday but we’re just getting started so there’s still plenty of time to jump in.

For only $25, you’ll not only receive an exclusive set of 6×8-inch mini album templates designed by me (one student told me the templates alone are worth the price!) but you’ll also receive a printable planning guide, interactive album planner, exclusive tutorials and downloads for printing and putting your album together and access to a private Facebook group where you can connect with me and a whole group of kickass memory keepers.

It’s everything you need to actually complete your holiday mini album this year.

If you’re new to Holiday Faves, Holiday Faves is my solution for creating an easy, stress-free holiday mini album.

No more worrying about capturing daily details or getting behind, the focus here is simply on capturing your top ten favorite things from the holiday season, using all the digital scrapbooking supplies you already know and love.

This year will be my fourth time doing the Holiday Faves and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about doing projects like this, it’s that they’re so much more fun when you do them with others!

So this year when you purchase the Holiday Faves, in addition to a brand-new set of mini album templates designed by me, you’ll also receive access to the first ever Holiday Faves project-based class.

As part of the class, you’ll receive the Holiday Faves Planning Guide, weekly emails from me with words of encouragement and tips, and access to a private Facebook group where you can ask questions, share your work and get to know other Holiday Favers.

This year’s templates are 6×8 inches which is not only a great size for a small album or photo book, but it also happens to scale down perfectly to 3×4 inches for all you pocket scrapbookers out there.

The Holiday Faves 2014 project class will run from Monday, December 1st to Monday, December 29th. Registration is now open and will close December 8th.

As a special Black Friday treat, I’m offering an early bird price of $20 for anyone who signs up for Holiday Faves between now and Friday, November 28th.

Holiday Faves is one of my absolute favorite projects of the year so I hope you’ll join me on this holiday scrapbooking adventure!

This is it folks! Friday, November 7th is here which means TODAY is the very last day to grab the DSD Limited Edition Digi Scrap Love Templates here at Nettio Designs.

For those of you who’ve asked, YES these are the ONLY new 12×12-inch single layout digital scrapbooking templates I’ll be releasing in 2014. I’m also using these as a gauge for my plans moving forward, so if you like these and want to see more, be sure to let me know.

These are some of my personal favorite templates I’ve done in a long, long time and I have no doubt they’ll be some of yours too.

To purchase these templates or see more details, click the link below. Sales of these templates ends tonight at midnight US Central DST.

In honor of Digital Scrapbooking Day last weekend, I released an all-new limited set of digital scrapbooking templates, Digi Scrap Love, here at Nettio Designs. Since tomorrow, Friday November 7th is the final day to grab them, I wanted to take a minute today to give you a closer look at each of the four templates.

Most template designers will tell you that templates are awesome because they save you time – and depending on your scrapbooking style and skill-level, that can be true.

But my personal favorite reason for using templates is as a jumping off point for my own creativity.

No more worrying about “Where should I put my photo?” or “Will my title look good if I put it here?” Simply use the template as a guide for the foundation of your layout and then embellish and customize the template to your heart’s content for a look that’s 100% unique to your story and style.

Template No. 1 in the Digi Scrap Love Templates features a single photo, six grid design and vertically divided background. Open white space in the background of the layout is a great place to add a punch of your own style. In my case, I chose to add a blended version of my photo to really drive my story home.

Template No. 2 in the Digi Scrap Love Templates features a nine-grid design. Grids are one my absolute favorite layout foundation for creative scrapbooking, not only for their clean-lined look, but because I love the way the blocks give me “homes” for all my photos and details. Playing with digiscrap goodies is part of the fun and this template gives you plenty of room to do just that.

Template No. 3 in the Digi Scrap Love Templates features a bold edge-to-edge triangle design perfect for mixing and matching all that gorgeous patterned paper that comes in a kit. I don’t know about you but after all the hexagons and chevrons, I’m thrilled to see this little three-sided classic shape get it’s time in the sun again.

And finally Template No. 4 in the Digi Scrap Love Templates features an even more awesome grid design, this time based around one of my personal favorite storytelling methods: top ten lists!

Lists are awesome not only because they’re one of, if not the, easiest form of journaling, but because they create a great foundation for your design as well. I chose to use this template to showcase ten things I want to remember about my little boy, but you could easily use it for vacation faves, monthly faves, etc., too.

Now to channel my inner Price Is Right host, all four of these templates can be yours when you grab the Digi Scrap Love Templates!

These 12×12 templates are limited edition and available only thru tomorrow, Friday November 7th. They’re also the ONLY new 12×12 digital scrapbooking templates I’ll be releasing this year so grab them while you can!